Juventus

Barcelona-Juventus ended 0-0 and Messi only made a substitute appearance, but there was plenty of incredible soccer to go around. For example, in the first half Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets found himself being pressed by Juventus midfielder Miralem Pjanic. Did Busquets safely pass the ball back to a center half or his goalkeeper? No. Did he panic and hoof the pall up the pitch in the general direction of Luis Suarez? No.

Instead, Busquets calmly (and slowly) gave Pjanic the ol' Zidane roulette before (still slowly) skipping away and finding Ivan Rakitic.

This is the official end of an era for the Italy national team. After a 0-0 draw with Sweden on Monday, combined with a 1-0 defeat on Friday, Italy will not be at the 2018 World Cup, ending a run of 14 straight World Cup appearances. The dominoes are already falling in the aftermath of the Azzurri failing to qualify.

This season, Serie A has been about the top teams beating the bottom teams every week. The five best teams have racked up a huge number of points. So far, Napoli and Inter are unbeaten, while Juventus have only lost one game. Two points separate the top three teams, five points separate the top five. 

Juventus defeated AC Milan 2-0 in this weekend’s marquee Serie A matchup with Gonzalo Higuain scoring a phenomenal brace to silence the San Siro.

The significance of the occasion was clearly not lost on Milan supporters as the 80,018-capacity San Siro was absolutely electric, a cauldron of noise as the October sun set on a balmy day in Lombardy. There was a sense that all could be forgiven regarding Milan’s slow start to league play should the Rossoneri put one over on a Juventus side stranded in unfounded territory following 10 matches — third.